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MV16 Careers Programme

Whether students are opting to go to university or considering a Higher or Degree Apprenticeship, post 18 advice and guidance at MV16 is plentiful. Careers guidance is provided by our experienced and dedicated careers team, tailored to the individual and meets each of the Gatsby Benchmarks.

We aim to provide excellent quality, neutral information and guidance to all of our students to allow us to provide them with the best possible foundations for their next steps after leaving MV16. Students have a close working relationship with our personal careers adviser who offers this high quality, impartial advice and guidance for continued studies and/ or chosen career paths.

Students benefit from extensive and experienced support with the UCAS process including preparation for Oxbridge, Russell Group universities and specialised courses such as Veterinary and Medicine. In addition, access to master classes through our partnership universities is promoted alongside the mentoring programme at Zero Gravity. We work closely with Cambridge and Oxford Universities through our '7up' programme for the most able students. Opportunities to attend open days and higher education fairs are actively promoted in addition to our own in-house annual Post 18 destinations event each Spring.

Careers guidance starts as early as the application process in Year 11. Through a series of assemblies, open events, taster days and where necessary, one to one interviews. Students are guided onto A level and selected BTEC courses which best suit their aspirations. MV16 liaise with local secondary schools to ensure students are aware of post 16 and post 18 pathways at the college. All students have the opportunity for ongoing careers guidance through LEBC once they join MV.

All students and parents are introduced to the college careers programme in the Autumn of year 12 and parents also have access to the Unifrog platform With the help of MV16 staff, the Unifrog platform allows students to research and successfully apply for their chosen pathway . This website is a 'one-stop-shop' for destinations and labour market information, allowing students to explore how their interests will lead to different education and training opportunities.

At Melton Vale, we work closely with the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) Careers Hub. This is an external organisation that supports us to develop and strengthen our careers education strategy across the whole college.

At MV we use the 8 Gatsby Benchmarks and the Careers Development Institute Framework as a foundation when planning our Careers programme. The effectiveness of our provision is reviewed by the LLEP and the Careers and Enterprise Company using the Compass Plus Tool. This tool is used by schools and colleges in England to support the analysis and evaluation of careers activity against the eight benchmarks of best practice.

This ensures the development of our careers strategy is ongoing. MV is a member of the LLEP Careers Hub. We will benchmark our schools against the Gatsby Benchmarks once a term.

In line with the recommendations set out in Gatsby Benchmark 1, we as a college plan to review the published information on an annual basis, inviting feedback from key audiences in our stakeholder evaluation group. We will also be holding an annual Future Skills Questionnaire with our college leavers so we have a youth voice to help us improve our programme.

Why we evaluate – This careers programme is evaluated every year to assess its efficacy and areas for improvement. Key stakeholders (students, parents, alumni, teachers and employers) provide feedback on their participation in activities via questionnaires, surveys and focus groups throughout the year. We use the evidence collected to inform continuous improvement of the programme.

How we evaluate – MV have recruited an evaluation stakeholder group, whose purpose it is to provide a well balance view on the quality of the careers offer to scholars. The group will be chaired by the school’s Enterprise Adviser, John Turner, Client Director at Dekra Automotive Ltd. (Senior Business Volunteer). We will meet once a year to review the evidence collected during the college year and consider their subjective experience and engagement with the programme. The careers leader, Natasha Roberts works with the Enterprise Adviser throughout the academic year.

What we evaluate - Stakeholder Feedback – We review samples of stakeholder feedback collected using various methods after activities, events and experiences
Implementation – We review what was actually delivered against the programme of planned activity and how well it went.
Impact -We measure key performance indicators linked directly to our vision and desired outcomes for our students at MV.